Your "Unsubscribe Opportunity" appears to be thinly veiled spam

[Esl_Expert]

Dear Torsten,

Today I received your "Unsubscribe Opportunity" e-mail, twice. It seems to me that 1) unsubscribing once should be more than enough, and 2) the unsubscribe link in your e-mail doesn't work anyway. It simply takes me to your online shop, where I am told the following -- in addition a slew of shopping "opportunities" and advertising:

[Kati Svaby]

Hello English-test.net

I am sorry but I don't know who sent me 14.October, at 23:25.

I like very much the free Email English Course and I never want to unsubscribe. In contrary I had to subscribe several times as I didn't get any email. I would be very grateful if I got 2-3 emails per month in total. It would be great! I would like to get newsletters one after the other.

For example this week I got an essay that I had answered earlier whereas I saw the email of this week is a new theme. I didn't know what to do ? Could I write an other answer to this old newsletter or without invitation can I reply to the new newsletter?

Regards:
Kati Svaby
_________________
We always deceive ourselves twice about the people we love - first to their advantage, then to their disadvantage.

[Vannylm6]

Hi Kati,
I had the same e-mail and I wonder why I was sent unsubscribing e-mail. I never wanted to unsubsribe as well. I was not so active last months but if there are some rules not be accepted some members so let someone clear to us.
I thought English test.net is for all?
is it? or there are meanwhile new rules?

[Beeesneees]

Please just ignore the 'unsubscribe' email.
_________________
Cheers m' dears!

[Mister Micawber]

It is just a blanket mailing to all registered members, folks. I got one, too. Don't take it personally; it is a computerized mailing.
_________________
Native English teacher at Mister Micawber's

[WhiteRussian]

Why did you subscribe to their spam list in the first place? Nowadays half of the emails sent out worldwide are spam so there is nothing to be suprised at.

[Kati Svaby]

Hello Bez,

Many thanks for your letter.

Kati
_________________
We always deceive ourselves twice about the people we love - first to their advantage, then to their disadvantage.

[Kati Svaby]

Hello Mister Micawber's

Many thanks for your letter and 4 expressions which were unknown for me till now.

-blanket mailing
-registered member
-don't take it personally
-computerized mailing

Best regards:
Kati Svaby
_________________
We always deceive ourselves twice about the people we love - first to their advantage, then to their disadvantage.

[Kati Svaby]

Hello Vanny,

It is good that this letter made not only me nervous.

I have problems with these newsletters. Unfortunately I get them intermittently. That's why I subscribed again and again and after a subscription I got some newsletters and again a break. This week I got an old newsletter whereas I saw Alan sent an other one this week. But I didn't get this new one.

I never let a letter without answer that's why I didn't understood the question. It is a good exercise to reply to these interesting essays, isn't it?

Take care:
Kati
_________________
We always deceive ourselves twice about the people we love - first to their advantage, then to their disadvantage.

[Goldhat]

I will not dignify these comments. If that is how either of you feel about this forum and the hardworking people who manage it, then certainly I would encourage you both to leave.
_________________
Joel Milne,
English-Test.net Developer

[Beeesneees]

As it happens, I've also been wondering why that mailshot was sent, apparently to everyone who is registered on the forum regardless of their current mailing list preferences -- and particularly in light of the fact that the 'unsubscribe' option doesn't actually work.
Was the mailshot sent in error?
_________________
Cheers m' dears!

[Et-admin]

Bev, we are planning to begin sending a monthly newsletter and 1-2 promotional emails per month. So before we do that we wanted to give everyone the opportunity to opt-out of the list. It is an email marketing "best practices" procedure, and it ensures compliance with relevant anti-spam laws.

The unsubscribe link works for any member on an existing fixed-list, but there was a technical problem for users not currently on a list. So we posted a message asking those users affected to email us if they want to be unsubscribed. This problem affects approximately 8,000 users out of the 224,000 mailed.

The new mailing system is dynamic, it sends from our user database instead of from a fixed-list, so rather than removing users from a fixed list we are actually compiling a database of emails that do not want to receive future mail from us. It is a challenging step, but well worth doing. Once we have cleared any unsubscribers away, we can mail students with information relevant to their choice of study, or send a message only to teachers, and much more. The technical term is "criteria-selected dynamic list management".

We have had mostly positive results, members thanking us for respecting their right to choose if they receive future mail or not. Many have expressed happiness about receiving more learning content, which will be a part of our future mailings.

Of course we regret the technical issue with some of the unsubscribe links, and for anyone inconvenienced by that we apologize. Anyone emailing us directly to unsubscribe will have their choice recorded and respected.

As for "esl_expert", I think anyone who reads her comment will see it for what it is, a cynical, mean-spirited post containing a serious, but completely false accusation.

Thanks for asking about the mailer Bev, and giving me the chance to explain it. I know there are some students confused about it, and for some it might be too long to read or difficult to understand.

[Torsten]

Hi Joel,

Yes it's best to ignore Amy's aka 'ESL_Expert's comments as she tends to look for opportunities to gripe about something she either doesn't understand or simply doesn't like mainly for personal reasons.

Fortunately enough there are very few people like her.

Regards,
Torsten

TOEFL listening lectures: Which designer did not work at the Bauhaus?

[Beeesneees]

Joel -
Thank you for the explanation.
I've just sent an unsubscribe request via e-mail.
It's a pity that those affected are the ones who obviously didn't wish to receive e-mail advertising in the first place, so are likely to be the ones who still don't with to receive marketing mails in the future, but technical hitches seem destined to be part and parcel of technology for a long time to come.

Torsten -
Much as I respect you, I have to disagree. It seems to me that Amy's 'gripes' do not stem from a lack of understanding or a personal viewpoint, but from a desire to see accurate, rigorous, dependable questions and comments on the forum. She may put things a little too forcibly for your liking at times, and her previous negative experiences are undoubtedly reflected in her attitude now, but I think her experience was an asset to this site and I'm sorry to see she has decided to steer clear of it of late.
I'm guessing that we'll have to agree to disagree on this subject, and don't wish to start a protracted debate, but I could not let the comment pass as I find it unjustified.
_________________
Cheers m' dears!

[Torsten]

Hi Bev,

We basically have two mailing lists. The first one is a so called 'double-opt-in'. This means, that a subscribers needs to take two steps before they start receiving any emails from us: A) They need to insert their email address into an online form and B) They need to click on a confirmation link they receive via email. This first lists contains almost 200,000 people. They have been receiving our free email English course along with our essays. Each of those emails contains a link that allows them to leave the list by one single click.

The second list contains the email address of those people who have purchased a product in our online shop. So far, we have never contacted our customers by email so many of them might not actually remember us. This is why we decided to send them an email with the option of opting out of any future mailings.

Hope this clarifies the situation.

Best regards,
Torsten

TOEFL listening lectures: A university lecture by a professor of American History